
For many Indigenous peoples around the world, such as the Mapuche from South America, dreaming is not just a personal experience. It is understood as a way of receiving important messages from spirits and as a source of knowledge. Dreaming connects us to the past and helps us weave the futures we wish to create. Especially in times of crisis, dreaming offers a way to imagine what is possible.
The Mapuche collective EPEW and the Mapuche foundation of the Netherlands (FOLIL) have come together to present a program centered on visualization of dreams. They invite us to take part in a series of events at Wereldmuseum Leiden between 8 November and 8 December.
At the heart of the program is the making of an art installation titled Fillke Pewma (Dreams) moving from a wood and textile module realized by EPEW and inspired by the Mapuche ruka (house) and working with photographs from the museum’s collection, taken during the colonization of Indigenous territories. Through collective workshops around weaving and cyanotype printing, these images will be transformed into drem landscapes — new visual pathways that invite us to reinterpret our reality and connect with ancestral knowledge.
The installation will be placed in the MIZUA side gallery and will include a space where visitors, inspired by these transformed images, can share their own dreams for the future.
In addition, the program features a talk on the relationship between photography, textiles, reparation, and reciprocity, as well as a workshop on Mapuche textile techniques.
The installation will be accessible during regular museum hours.
Participation in the talk and workshop requires registration.
Program made possible through the collaboration of Wereldmuseum Leiden with Sheffield University, FOLIL, Epew Collective, Kaikoesie Foundation & Inheems Kennis Centrum (IKC).